Purchases dominate the carbon footprint of research laboratories

Marianne de Paepe (), Laurent Jeanneau (), Jerôme Mariette (), Olivier Aumont () and André Estevez-Torres ()
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Marianne de Paepe: MICALIS - MICrobiologie de l'ALImentation au Service de la Santé - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Laurent Jeanneau: GR - Géosciences Rennes - UR - Université de Rennes - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - OSERen - Observatoire des sciences de l'environnement de Rennes - UR - Université de Rennes - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - UR2 - Université de Rennes 2 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Jerôme Mariette: MIAT INRAE - Unité de Mathématiques et Informatique Appliquées de Toulouse - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, UT - Université de Toulouse
Olivier Aumont: LOCEAN-NEMO R&D - Nucleus for European Modeling of the Ocean - LOCEAN - Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques - MNHN - Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - SU - Sorbonne Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - IPSL (FR_636) - Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - UVSQ - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] - SU - Sorbonne Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UPCité - Université Paris Cité
André Estevez-Torres: LJP - Laboratoire Jean Perrin - SU - Sorbonne Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - IBPS - Institut de Biologie Paris Seine - INSERM - Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale - SU - Sorbonne Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LASIRE - Laboratoire Avancé de Spectroscopie pour les Intéractions la Réactivité et l'Environnement - UMR 8516 - INC-CNRS - Institut de Chimie - CNRS Chimie - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Despite increasing interest for the carbon footprint of higher education institutions, little is known about the carbon footprint associated to research activities. Air travel and attendance to conferences concentrate recent data and debates but purchases have attracted little attention. Here we develop a hybrid method to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) associated to research purchases. To do so, we combine macroeconomic databases, research-centered companies footprints and life-cycle assessments to construct a public database of monetary emission factors (EF) for research purchases. We apply it to estimate the purchases emissions of a hundred of research laboratories in France, belonging to the Labos 1point5 network and gathering more than 20000 staff, from all disciplines. We find that purchases dominate laboratory emissions, accounting for more than 50% of emissions, with a median of 2.7 t CO$_2$e/pers, which is 3 to 4-fold the separate contribution from travel, commutes and heating. Median electricity emissions are 5-fold lower in our dataset of laboratories using low carbon electricity but they become preponderant for high carbon electricity mixes (3.5 t CO$_2$e/pers). Purchases emissions are very heterogeneous among laboratories and are linearly correlated with budget, with an average carbon intensity of 0.31 ± 0.07 kg CO$_2$/€ and differences between research domains. Finally, we quantify the effect of a series of demand-driven mitigation strategies obtaining up to −20% in total emissions (−40% in purchases emissions), suggesting that effectively reducing the carbon footprint of research activities calls for systemic changes.

Keywords: carbon footprint; Research laboratories (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-tre
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Published in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, 2024, 3 (7), pp.e0000116. ⟨10.1371/journal.pstr.0000116⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04666497

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000116

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